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X Factor-spawned boy-band get gamified, but they're just the starting point for UK startup

Inensu chief executive Paulina Bozek signed up One Direction for SuperFan

London-based startup Inensu has signed up a big name for its new music-focused SuperFan Facebook application. British boy-band One Direction, who bagged a record deal with Sony Music after their run in 2010's UK X Factor series, have become the first artist to use the app to connect with their fans.

We've written about Inensu before: chief executive Paulina Bozek talked about the company's plans to make social and mobile applications at the Develop conference in July 2011. She is no stranger to the music industry, having previously spent six years as executive producer of Sony's SingStar PlayStation singing games.

"SuperFan is a platform for fans to hang out together, socialise and play games, while competing to be the number one super-fan," says Bozek.

"The target audience is teens, because music is their identity, whether that's One Direction, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or whoever. What we're trying to do is gamify what it means to be a fan."
At launch, there are four artists for SuperFan users to sign up to: Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and One Direction, although only the latter is the result of a specific deal with the artist's label.

For now, SuperFan isn't using streaming music, but is instead pulling in other data such as tour dates (from fellow startup Songkick) and encouraging fans to virtually check-in to wherever the artist is that day. People collect points for their influence and knowledge, with the application's core features inspired by popular Facebook games.

"We're applying the social gaming concept of a daily active user, a DAU," says Bozek. "In social gaming, your farm needs to be harvested, your pets run away, your restaurant is dirty, so you come back. We've mapped that onto the world of music. 'Do you know where One Direction is right now? They're in Marble Arch!' And all these kids hanging out on Twitter and Facebook will know that.

People can connect their Twitter accounts to SuperFan and then chat to one another when checked in to the same place. The chat happens via tweets, for Bozek says Inensu doesn't want to try to move its users away from the micro-blogging service.

The game elements of SuperFan are currently fairly light, but Bozek says Inensu has a long list of mini-games and new features to add in the coming months.

"We're using a lot of analytics and metrics to figure out what the fans want," she says. "We're using Kontagent, which is the best-in-class social analytics platform that's used by all the big social game developers. We want to apply the social game mentality to being a fan."

So what do One Direction get out of SuperFan from being an official partner? They get a customised version of the app that sits on their own Facebook page, and the marketing around their releases and tours will be tightly tied in. That includes encouraging fans to check in to content, like videos, as well as places. There will also be specific badges to earn as rewards for being early to access some of this content.

One Direction have a branded version of the SuperFan application

Blog home One Direction get more social with Inensu's SuperFan Facebook appX Factor-spawned boy-band get gamified, but they're just the starting point for UK startup
Inensu chief executive Paulina Bozek signed up One Direction for SuperFan

London-based startup Inensu has signed up a big name for its new music-focused SuperFan Facebook application. British boy-band One Direction, who bagged a record deal with Sony Music after their run in 2010's UK X Factor series, have become the first artist to use the app to connect with their fans.

We've written about Inensu before: chief executive Paulina Bozek talked about the company's plans to make social and mobile applications at the Develop conference in July 2011. She is no stranger to the music industry, having previously spent six years as executive producer of Sony's SingStar PlayStation singing games.

"SuperFan is a platform for fans to hang out together, socialise and play games, while competing to be the number one super-fan," says Bozek.

"The target audience is teens, because music is their identity, whether that's One Direction, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or whoever. What we're trying to do is gamify what it means to be a fan."
At launch, there are four artists for SuperFan users to sign up to: Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and One Direction, although only the latter is the result of a specific deal with the artist's label.

For now, SuperFan isn't using streaming music, but is instead pulling in other data such as tour dates (from fellow startup Songkick) and encouraging fans to virtually check-in to wherever the artist is that day. People collect points for their influence and knowledge, with the application's core features inspired by popular Facebook games.

"We're applying the social gaming concept of a daily active user, a DAU," says Bozek. "In social gaming, your farm needs to be harvested, your pets run away, your restaurant is dirty, so you come back. We've mapped that onto the world of music. 'Do you know where One Direction is right now? They're in Marble Arch!' And all these kids hanging out on Twitter and Facebook will know that."

People can connect their Twitter accounts to SuperFan and then chat to one another when checked in to the same place. The chat happens via tweets, for Bozek says Inensu doesn't want to try to move its users away from the micro-blogging service.

The game elements of SuperFan are currently fairly light, but Bozek says Inensu has a long list of mini-games and new features to add in the coming months.
"We're using a lot of analytics and metrics to figure out what the fans want," she says. "We're using Kontagent, which is the best-in-class social analytics platform that's used by all the big social game developers. We want to apply the social game mentality to being a fan."

So what do One Direction get out of SuperFan from being an official partner? They get a customised version of the app that sits on their own Facebook page, and the marketing around their releases and tours will be tightly tied in. That includes encouraging fans to check in to content, like videos, as well as places. There will also be specific badges to earn as rewards for being early to access some of this content.

One Direction have a branded version of the SuperFan application "The 1D version is very integrated into their overall campaign," says Bozek. "Plus the label will have certain news that they want to promote through SuperFan." Sony Music will also get access to some of the stats: for example, pinpointing hotspots around the world where a lot of fans are logging in.

At the start of this week, four weeks after launching quietly in beta, SuperFan had attracted more than 25,000 monthly active users, who had checked in nearly 40,000 times, spending an average of 12 minutes in the application per session.

Most of that activity came from One Direction's branded version of the app. The band currently have more than one million Likes on their Facebook page, so there's clearly some work to do to get more of those fans signed up to the SuperFan app.

"Overall, our main goal for the first four weeks has been building retention over acquisition, so we'll be focusing on this next, and adding more features and mechanics in general," says Bozek. "We have a list of 20 ideas as to what we could do next, but we want to find out what the fans are enjoying first."